Juaan
Apego EP

With Roza Terenzi and Sleep D on the remix, Alfred Czital & Ayu summon divine frequencies across a debut recalling the finest turn-of-the-millennium trance.Spirits are high as we strive for utopia. Like relics of times passed – a bygone era where the free party reigned supreme – this is a union forged out of a mutual affinity for trippy dancefloor dynamics and live performance.Rapturous and ecstatic, both originals evoke pure club hedonism. Sensual, sultry gear made of euphoric melodrama, close sweat and lysergic throb. Wide-eyed optimism coursing throughout, but like any good proggy majick, it’s not without a decent dose of shadow and ritual.Coming in hottt with the remixes and both are befitting a release bent on traversing the wormhole interior. Oyster Cult acolyte Roza Terenzi keeps it taught and tightly-coiled on her rugged, propulsive re-fit, and not to be outdone, Butter Sessions founders Sleep D let atmosphere pull focus with a sprawling, dubby workout.

Up next in our main series are Milan-based dub techno outfit Primal Code. With a solid back catalogue comprising releases for Hypnus Records, TGP and Konstrukt, the Italian duo have honed their skills to impressive effect over the last few years, forging a sound signature thoroughly engaging on both body and cerebral levels, and now punching in on KOC to breathe further hard-hitting opaque heat into the collection.Putting things into gear, “AI Calculator” propels us across dim-lit streetscapes and murky subterranean entrails, pared-down to a minimal array of modular signals, subtle machine inflections and particularly acute rhythmic progression. Steering the original into further pumped-up, DJ-friendly territories, NAFF affiliate Priori, hot on heels from his sophomore album, drops the hammer badman style, bringing forth the racing muscular bass and squelchy machine talk on loop mode to keep everyone on their toes from start to finish. Flexing a different kind of acidic swagger, “Autopilot” pulls out the weird extra-terrestrial jazz tropes and whirling dynamics for a round of proper otherworldly bop in the outer-space. Last but not least, “Mainframe” rounds off the release on a more openly experimental note, letting the loops, envelopes and textures float in a haze of half-controlled abstraction. The result evokes something of an immunocompromised Rubber Johnny getting glazed as he weightlessly drifts off from a galaxy to another, and into another world completely.

Venerated clubland legend Robert Dietz graces Kalahari territory with a clutch of sinister techno-trance variants.The evolution of the Dietz sound continues unabated as he pivots from minimal scene mainstay to purveyor of big techno dramatixxx. Still just as finely-tuned and potent as he’s always been though, and this is no means a drastic departure from more recent work.Running tempestuous heaters from the eye of a storm, there’s a tough, menacing edge coursing throughout. Four decidedly Euro spins offering visions of dystopia and ominous portent, but we forge ahead unperturbed, headfirst into the shadowy void.Gone is the playfulness of releases past, set aside in favour of heat-seeking ballistics. Strapping accelerators big on drama while allowing space for a bit of dancefloor introspection. More of that all thrills, no frills kinda flex as the Frankfurt native goes about his business like it’s effortless.

Back in 2021, when Volodymyr Gnatenko agreed to work on his debut album, none of us could have predicted it would be released, post-pandemic, against the backdrop of war. At the time, the 23-year-old producer from Lutsk was riding high on a string of well-received 12s for labels such as Where We Met and Animals On Psychedelics, besides local Ukraine labels such as LSS557 and Rhythm Buro. He was, between covid closures, playing live at Kyiv clubs such as Closer and Kureni, looking to tour in Europe, and spending every spare second making music.How things change. When missiles began to rain on Kyiv, Gnatenko, alongside a few friends from Closer, hid in his studio. For a while, the bombings did not stop. But for the producer, neither did the music-making. Choosing to stay in the city, he continues to make beats, managing only to mix down between bombing raids. He changed his first name to match that of his president, ditching the previous spelling of his name because it was the same as the aggressor, “the same as my worst enemy, I am ashamed and disgusted that I started my career with it”.The album speaks of softer, easier times. A combination of rich ambience, and laidback breaks alongside loose progressive and trance-fused dancefloor tracks, this debut brings together all the strands that Gnatenko plays with. The process, he says, was exhausting and long. Yet the results are lighter, fresher. Maybe because, he says, “it is dedicated to my future wife. All the tracks are my words of love for her". Deeply hypnotic and freely moving between ideas, it feels like it was made a lifetime ago, not a matter of months. Now, it resonates with a new defiance. It is a debut with an extra layer of meaning.

With a remix and a compilation cameo already under his belt, Canadian figurehead Priori makes his Kalahari return for the debut proper. 3 squelchy incursions complete with a hefty remix from fellow Oyster Cult acolyte Sansibar.Known for traversing breezy, horizontal zones, the NAFF co-founder sets downbeat and ambient concerns aside for the direct and propulsive. Expect insistent, urgent forays down the wormhole as nocturnal jaunts made of ritual and darkroom throb coalesce with meditative, essential rhythm.This is fractal gear born from the the traditions of European, Japanese and American Mid-West techno; tunnelling and immersive, conjuring moments of ascension for the gathered masses.Finishing on Sansibar’s meaty refit, the one-two punch of seismic kick and dry-as-bone snare propels Priori’s original in a whole new direction. .